Tradition and Trade Beads: The Early Sobaipuri O’odham–Spanish Contact Period at San Xavier Del Bac, Arizona

Abstract

Our paper investigates aspects of initial contact between the Sobaipuri O’odham and Spanish missionaries at San Xavier del Bac in the late 1600s to early 1700s. Cultural contact and change are of enduring interest to anthropologists, and our recent research on the San Xavier District provides important new data on this subject. Specifically, we investigate the degree of indigenous adoption of European material culture and religious teachings at this remote outpost of the Spanish empire after contact with Father Kino in 1692. We use archaeological data from a Protohistoric-early Historic period locus northeast of the San Xavier Mission to investigate our research topic. Through our excavation results and comparative data from other Sobaipuri sites and publications, we demonstrate that the Sobaipuri villagers at Bac initially exhibited indifference to the presence of the Spanish until the mid-1700s when they began to participate in more active forms of resistance to Spanish domination.